“I’m more interested in adoption than capability”

Jessica Wu, Firmbrain AI – Global Day Zero Founder Series – written response from issue 8.

Tell us a little about yourself and what you’re working on.

I’m Jessica Wu. My background is in market intelligence and customer research, and more recently I’ve been working on B2B AI commercialisation through FirmBrain.

At FirmBrain, I’m currently focused on commercialising an AI product – exploring different founder and industry communities, testing distribution channels for B2B SaaS, and working with pilot users to understand where the product fits into their workflow and how it creates real value.

Where do you sit on the AI spectrum – avoiding it, somewhat into it, or all in?

I’m very interested in AI, but probably more sceptical than people expect.

After speaking with many small and medium-sized businesses, I’ve noticed a fairly consistent pattern. AI is already very good at accelerating parts of the execution – drafting, analysing, summarising or helping people get to an answer faster. But the decisions still tend to sit with people.

And I think the harder problem comes after that. An AI-enabled improvement might look impressive on its own, but whether it actually fits a company’s workflow is a completely different question. Understanding that often takes a lot of customer research and iteration, and adapting the solution to the way a business really works can take far more effort than people expect.

That’s probably where some of my scepticism comes from. There are AI features appearing in almost every piece of software now, but when you look at what people actually come back to and use consistently, the list becomes much shorter.

So I’m very optimistic about what AI can do. I’m just more interested in adoption than capability – not whether AI can do something, but whether it fits well enough into a real workflow that people genuinely want to keep using it.

What’s the hardest part for startups that want to go beyond their own borders?

I think one of the hardest parts is getting good enough market intelligence to make decisions with confidence.

That has actually become harder in B2B software. A few years ago, you could learn quite a lot from desk research – company websites, product pages, industry material and expert interviews. Now, a lot of software websites tell you the value proposition, but much less about what the product actually looks like, what has recently changed, or what functionality the company is actively building.

So I think market research has to become much more active. Sometimes you need to be physically present in the market – attending industry events and trade shows, seeing product demonstrations, talking to people in the ecosystem, and continuously picking up information from different places rather than expecting the answer to sit online.

The customer side has changed as well, particularly in B2B. Research increasingly starts to look like good pre-sales discovery. You need to understand how the customer actually works, where the problem sits in their workflow, what kind of solution could realistically improve it, and most importantly, what value solving that problem would create for the business.

And when you enter another market, all of those questions become harder, because you also have to work out which assumptions still travel with you and which ones need to be tested again.

For me, that raises the bar for market research. It’s no longer enough to collect information about competitors and customers. The insight has to be good enough to tell you what solution to build, how to position it, and why a customer should care.

What are you working on now?

At FirmBrain, I’m at a stage where the bigger question is no longer simply “can we build this?”, but “can we prove that it creates enough value for a business to actually adopt it?”

That has made the commercial side of building a B2B product particularly interesting to me. I’m working closely with pilot users, having pre-sales conversations, exploring different ways to reach the right businesses, and learning what it actually takes to move from initial interest to real usage.

One thing I’ve realised is that, in zero-to-one B2B software, building the product and proving the value are two different problems.

A customer might understand the concept and even like the product, but that doesn’t automatically mean it fits their workflow or that the improvement is valuable enough for them to change how they work. You still have to understand what problem matters most to them, what the right solution looks like in their environment, and what business value solving that problem actually creates.

That process can be difficult, but I think it’s also one of the most valuable parts of building from zero to one. You get to see very directly where product capability, customer adoption and commercial value do – and sometimes don’t – line up.

What’s something people might not expect about you?

I have a perfect dessert list.

It’s a very short list, because I’m quite demanding when it comes to desserts. I’ve had some sensory evaluation training, and I also really enjoy tasting and comparing different desserts, so over time I’ve developed a pretty specific idea of what “really good” tastes like.

The funny thing is, if I put a dessert on that list and recommend it to someone, so far no one has told me I was wrong.

And when something is close but not quite there, I automatically start thinking about what went wrong – maybe the sweetness is out of balance, the texture isn’t right, or one flavour is overpowering everything else – and what would make it better.

If it’s nowhere near the list, though, I usually don’t bother. Some desserts just aren’t fixable.

How can you help others in the community?

I’m always happy to help with market research, particularly when someone has a business question but isn’t quite sure what evidence they need or how to get to a reliable answer.

A big part of my background is figuring out which research method fits which question. Depending on what you’re trying to understand, that might mean analysing existing data, desk research, customer or expert interviews, competitor research, or going directly into the market through industry events and product demonstrations.

More recently, I’ve also built up quite a bit of experience researching B2B AI products while working on FirmBrain. I’m constantly testing different AI tools, speaking with people building or working with them, seeing products demonstrated at conferences and industry events, and, where possible, talking directly with users.

What I’m usually trying to understand goes beyond the feature list: What does the product actually do in practice? How are people using it? Where does it fit into their existing workflow? What problem is it really solving – and is that problem actually being solved well enough for people to keep using it?

So if someone is trying to understand a market, investigate a competitor, assess a B2B AI product, or simply has a messy business question they’re not sure how to research, I’m always happy to help think through the approach and make sense of the evidence.

And what would you like help with?

Right now, I’d really value introductions to founders and small teams in professional services who are thinking seriously about how AI could fit into the way they manage clients and accounts.

I’m particularly interested in people who are willing to talk openly about how their workflow works today – where information gets lost, what they’ve already tried with AI, what has actually been useful, and what still feels difficult.

Those conversations are incredibly valuable to me at this stage of FirmBrain. They help us test whether we’re solving a problem that matters, understand what a useful solution needs to look like in practice, and ultimately prove whether the value is strong enough for a business to keep using it.

If you work in that space – or know someone who does – I’d love an introduction.

Where can people find you?

LinkedIn is definitely the easiest place to find me. I’m always happy to connect with people working around B2B AI, market research and professional services – or anyone who enjoys comparing notes on what’s actually working in the market.

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